Sensex ends up 79 pts

The Sensex has ended (provisional) at 17,562 - up 79 points. Nifty ends up 18 points at 5,284.
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(Updated at 1426 hrs)

Markets have given up gains in late noon trades in selling pressure on Oil & gas and IT shares. A soft opening for European markets also dampened sentiments. The Sensex slipped 228 points from the day's high to a low of 17,474. The index is now up 24 points at 17,506. Nifty is unchanged at 5,265.

Meanwhile, Pakistan has backtracked after granting the Most Favoured Nation status to India in trade recently.

BSE oil & gas index has shed 0.4% to 9,011. IT index has slipped 0.2% to 5,717. Meanwhile, BSE metal index has managed to hold on to some gains and is now up 1.5% at 11,824.

Reliance reversed gains and slipped 1% to Rs 876. Tata group of stocks declined. Tata Power shed 1.4% to Rs 104. TCS dropped 1.2% to Rs 1,090. Tata Motors was down 1% at Rs 187. Other auto shares - Mahindra & Mahindra and Maruti Suzuki also declined nearly a per cent each after most automobile companies reported weak sales in October. Rising cost of ownership and high interest rates have cooled down sales of passenger cars and commercial vehicles. According to Angel Broking, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors posted volume numbers that were not in tandem with expectations.

Bharti Airtel was up 1% at Rs 396 after announcing Q2 numbers. The company reported a bigger-than-expected 38.17% fall in quarterly profit bringing its consolidated net profit down to Rs 1,027 crore ($210 million), hit by higher interest costs and foreign exchange losses worth Rs 239 crore. Bharti Airtel is looking to spend $1.4 to $1.5 billion on its Africa operations in the current fiscal to end-March, a company executive said on Friday.

Among other shares, Sun TV Network has rallied 5% to Rs 287, extending the previous day’s gain of 5%, after the board of directors declared an interim dividend of Rs 3.75 a share (75%) on the face value of Rs 5 per share.

Manappuram Finance has surged 4% to Rs 61 on reporting a 125% year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in net profit to Rs 135 crore for the quarter ended September 30, compared to Rs 60 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

Power equipment makers such as Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), BGR Energy Systems, BF Utilities and Siemens are trading higher by 1-3% each for the second day in a row on reports that the government will consider imposing higher duty on imported power equipment, which may work to the advantage of domestic power equipment manufacturers.

BSE market breadth is positive. Out of 2,860 shares traded, 1,521 shares have advanced while 1,208 shares have declined.